Disposable paint tray and package including same



y 1965 T. L. DAHLBERG ETAL 3,184,050

DISPOSABLE PAINT TRAY AND PACKAGE INCLUDING SAME Filed July 1'7, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTORS y LeslieEJYwrrzpson,

fiuman L Dahlbery May 18, 1965 T. 1.. DAHLBERG ETAL DISPOSABLE PAINT TRAY AND PACKAGE INCLUDING SAME Filed July 17, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I M M H 11 i Wif a I lull United States Patent 3,184,050 DiSPSSABLE PAINT TRAY AND PACKAGE INCLUDENG SAME Truman L. Dahlberg, Flossrnoor, and Leslie E. Thump.

son, Hinsdale, 1th, assignors to De Soto Chemical Quatings, Inc., Chicago, Ill, a corporation of Delaware Filed July 17, 1962, Ser. No. 210,422 3 Claims. (Cl. 206-47) Our invention pertains to the art of containers and, more particularly, contemplates a package which serves first as a merchandising and shipping container for a painting outfit and, subsequently, after sale to the consumer an element thereof serves as a paint tray.

Our invention is especially designed to satisfy a need on the part of do-it-yourself home painters. Such persons require the basic tools for a relatively modest job of painting the interior or exterior of a home together with a moderate amount of paint for a particular job, which might involve covering the walls of one or more rooms or possibly the outside of a small house.

With this objective in mind, we have conceived of a housing which serves as a container for shipping and dispensing an outfit consisting of the basic requisite painting tools together with a given quantity of paint housed in fiat packages, said paint packages and painting accessories being all compactly arranged within said housing; a portion of the aforesaid housing is so designed that it will serve as an inexpensive, self-supporting, disposable paint tray for use in the painting operation.

Another object of our invention is to provide a new and improved paint dispensing tray which may be produced by folding and securing a blank of cardboard or like inexpensive material, which tray will serve the additional function of housing a compact arrangement of paint and painting accessories for shipping and merchandising purposes.

Various other objects and advantages will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Referring now to the drawings forming a part of this specification and illustrating a preferred embodiment of our invention,

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a complete package e1nbodying our invention;

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the same package and contents thereof, without outside wrapper;

FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 4-4 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary top plan view, on an enlarged scale, of one end of a tray embodying our invention, seen from the plane along line 55 of FIG. 4, and

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a blank from which the tray of FIGS. 3-5 is formed.

Referring first to FIGS. 3-6, inclusive, these figures illustrate an improved paint-dispensing tray designed especially for use in connection with a paint roller, said tray, indicated generally by the numeral 16, having a generally rectangular bottom wall 12 designed to slope downwardly from a shallow end wall 15 to a relatively deep end Wall 16. As seen in FIG. 6, the entire tray is preferably formed from an integral sheet of relatively stiff and foldable material which will have sufficient strength to support a body of liquid paint and which will be substantially impervious to the soaking through of the paint medium or carrier, whether it be oil or water, as the case might be. Preferably, because of its cheapness and because it satisfies the other requirements necessary for such an article, we employ a relatively stiff grade of chipboard or cardboard or like cellulosic material containing appropriate binder.

3,l84,@5h Patented May 18, 1%65 It will be noted from FIG. 6 that the end walls 15 and 16 are joined integrally to bottom wall 12, with scored straight lines 17, 17' therebetween to facilitate convenient folding along said lines.

Extending beyond end walls 15 and 16 are rectangular end flaps 19, 19 of substantially equal depth, with double lines of scoring 20, 20 between said end flaps and the adjacent end walls 15 and 16, in order to facilitate the reverse bend seen in FIG. 3. Flaps 19, 19' are designed to support the tray on a table or other level surface, as seen in FIG. 3. I

Also integral with bottom wall 12 and extending laterally therefrom are side walls 22, 22', with scoring lines 23, 23 between the bottom wall and said side walls. Said side walls 22, 22 are roughly triangular in shape in order to conform to the difference in depth of the tray between the shallow end 15 and deep end 16. Adjacent and extending laterally from each of the side walls is a side flap 25, 25, a double row of scoring 26, 26 being disposed between the side walls and said side flaps, as clearly seen in FIG. 6, in order to permit the reverse bend seen in FIG. 4, said side flaps serving along with the end flaps 19, 19' to support the tray on a flat surface as seen in FIG. 4.

Integral with the side strips 25 and 25' and extending longitudinally therebeyond are securing flaps 28a, 28b, 28c and 28d, scoring lines 3%, 30b, 30c and 30d being provided between said flaps and side strips 25, 25' to facilitate folding.

Formation of tray 10 from the blank or pattern seen in FIG. 6 will be obvious. End walls 15 and 16 and side walls 22, 22 will be bent upwardly out of the plane of bottom wall 12 while end flaps 19, 19 and side flaps 25, 25 will be reversely bent downwardly along the appro priate scoring lines. The securing flaps 28a, 28b, 28c and 28d will then be bent inwardly along their appropriate scoring lines and secured to the inside surface of the adjacent end flaps 19, 19 either by adhesive or preferably by staples 32. Obviously, securing flaps might be lateral projections of end flaps 19, 19' if desired in lieu of extensions of the side flaps.

The tray 10, as described above, will be quite rugged and self-supporting and will serve as a shipping container or housing for all of the other essential tools and accessories required for a modest house painting job. Accordingly, we contemplate that within said tray, at the factory, will be packed such items as are shown in exploded perspective in FIG. 2 and comprising the following, viz: a paint roller 35, of such size as to be adapted to cover efiiciently fairly large wall areas; a brush 37 of suitable size for covering trim such as molding, sash, etc.; a drop cloth 39, preferably formed of a suitable flexible and lightweight plastic sheeting or the like, and a plurality of containers 42 of liquid paint. Said containers 42 are preferably formed of flexible sheeting of suflicient strength to house safely a quantity of liquid paint in convenient quantity for home use, say a pint or a quart in quantity, said containers being preferably rectangular and, of course, sealed on all edges; such containers may be formed of flexible plastic sheeting of fairly heavy grade, and preferably transparent, so that the color will show through, but might be of a fairly heavy metal foil. In any case, the containers 42 will be sealed on all edges and will lie relatively fiat, so that they may be packed in a minimum of space, superimposed on each other within tray 16.

It will be understood that all of the items seem in PEG. 2 below tray 1% will be nested within said tray to form a relatively compact mass. When the tray has been so packed, it will he slid into a sleeve 45 which snugly receives said tray.

The combination of the tray 1% and its contents and sleeve 45 will then preferably be wrapped in a sheet of wrapping paper appropriately labeled todescribe the contents and also of sufiicient strength to retain the tray against accidental displacement from the sleeve, providing a finished wrapped package 48, as seen in FIG. 1, ready for distribution to the ultimate consumer.

Although, for purposes of economy, we prefer to use a tray formed from a blank as seen in FIG. 6, it is possible to employ in the combination of FIG. 2 a different kind of tray, such as one of stamped sheet aluminum, etc.

It will be readily apparent that when the consumer is ready to start a painting operation, it will only be necessary to open the package 48, remove the packed tray from sleeve 45, remove the tray contents from the tray and empty the contents of one of the bags 42 into the tray, place the drop clot-h 39 in position and then go to Work.

Various changes coming within the spirit of our invention may suggest themselves to those skilled in the art; hence, we do not wish to be limited to the specific embodiments shown and described or uses mentioned, but intend the same to be merely exemplary, the scope of our invention being limited only by the appended claims.

Obviously, the word paint, as used herein, will include not only any liquid coating material but also any liquid susceptible of packaging in the manner herein disclosed.

We claim:

1. A combined paint package comprising a preformed container formed from a unitary'blank of relatively stifi sheet material adapted to encompass the top, bottom and bottom and opposed external rectangular side walls and end walls of uniform height, a plurality of painting instrumentalities disposed in said tray for ultimate consumer useincluding a paint applying tool and at least. one relatively fiat packet consisting of a paint impervious receptacle and a quantity of liquid paint sealed therein, said packet being disposed in a plane substantially parallel to the bottom of said tray, an open-ended sleeve wrapper of rectangular cross-section and formed of relatively stiff sheet material adapted .to encompass the top, bottom and sides of said container with the contents therein, said container when removed from said wrapper adapted to serve as a tray for the paint in the course of use thereof.

2. A combined paint package as set forth in claim 1 wherein the paint applying tool is a roller applicator, the

paint-impervious reecptacle is formed of transparent plastic sheeting, and the painting instrumentalities include a drop cloth of plastic sheeting.

3. A blank for forming a tray, said blank consisting of an integral sheet of relatively stitifoldable material having a (a) V a rectangular bottom wall,

(b) a pair of end Walls projecting longitudinally from the ends of said bottom wall and separated therefrom by scored lines, one end Wall being relatively deep and the other relatively shallow,

(c) a pair of end flaps projecting longitudinally from said end walls and separated therefrom by scored lines, said end flaps being of substantially equal width so that, when said end walls are bent up to provide upstanding tray ends and the end flaps are bent down .to provide end legs, the bottom wall will be supported in a gently sloping plane,

(0.) side walls projecting laterally from the bottom wall and each separated therefrom by a scored line, said side walls being roughly trapezoidal to conform to said sloping bottom Wall in the finished tray,

(e) side flaps of substantially equal width projecting laterally from each side wall and separated therefrom by scored lines, to serve as side legs when bent down, and r (f) securing flaps extending from the opposite ends of each side flap and adapted to be bent transversely from the planes of said side flaps for insertion between the superposed ends of the end wall and end flap adjacent thereto and adapted to be fastened thereat.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,819,738 1/58 Marberg 20647 2,887,705 5/59 Serwer. 2,905,371 9/59 .Hulf 206-72 FRANKLIN T. GARRETT, Primary Examiner. EARLE J. DRUMMOND, Examiner. 

1. A COMBINED PAINT PACKAGE COMPRISING A PREFORMED CONTAINER FORMED FROM A UNITARY BLANK OF RELATIVELY STIFF SHEET MATERIAL ADAPTED TO ENCOMPASS THE TOP, BOTTOM AND BOTTOM AND OPPOSED EXTERNAL RECTANGULAR SIDE WALLS AND END WALLS OF UNIFORM HEIGHT, A PLURALITY OF PAINTING INSTRUMENTALITIES DISPOSED IN SAID TRAY ULTIMATE CONSUMER USE INCLUDING A PAINT APPLYING TOOL AND AT LEAST ONE RELATIVELY FLAT PACKET CONSISTING OF A PAINT IMPERVIOUS RECEPTACLE AND A QUANTITY OF LIQUID PAINT SEALED THEREIN, SAID 